Ireland received the largest per capita number of asylum seekers of any other EU country in the month of May

The single lowest number of asylum seekers received was by Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, which received zero.

According to the EU’s asylum body, Ireland saw “near-record levels” of asylum applications in May due to “increased numbers” of Palestinians, as well as Jordanians.

Asylum applications and refugees from Jordan

It is a huge increase on figures from July 2023 – when there were 53 Jordanian asylum seekers in Ireland. This number has now jumped to 1,021, the figures released this week show.

There were a total of 134 people from Jordan seeking International Protection in the State in the week ending 14th July – making Jordan the most common country of origin by far. Palestine was the country with the second highest numbers, with 24 Palestinians claiming protection here.

Meanwhile, 86 asylum seekers from Jordan arrived here last week, while Palestine was again the country with the second highest number of arrivals at 26. Nigeria was the third most popular country of origin (23 people), along with Somalia (23), Pakistan (21).

The increase in Jordanians seeking protection means that Jordan has gone from being the 40th most popular country of those seeking international protection to now being in the top ten.

Figures from the European Commission indicate that Jordan is the country with the most Palestinian refugees; it has over 2 million Palestinian refugees, although most have gained full Jordanian citizenship. With almost 2.4 million Palestinian refugees registered in Jordan, this number represents nearly half the total of all Palestinian refugees.

In April, one Jordanian refugee told The Times newspaper that he had moved to Dublin from Birmingham in the UK because he feared being deported due to the UK government’s Rwanda plan.

He told the British newspaper that after spending four months in England, he deliberated between Ireland or France, concluding that Dublin “was his best destination.”

I didn’t want to go to Rwanda. I changed my place [Jordan] because I had a problem with the government and a problem with my religion … The life is hard in Jordan. If they sent me to Rwanda, that would be very bad.

https://gript.ie/jordanian-asylum-seekers-arriving-in-ireland-up-1800-in-last-12-months/